Present low-cost musical instruments can be classified as blown such as harmonicas, bugles, horns; mechanical such as toy xylophones, toy pianos; electro-mechanical such as toy organs powered by battery and electric motor driven blowers; or electronic such as the Casio Model VL TONE.
These instruments display a number of serious disadvantages. Probably the largest single disadvantage common to all these instruments is that in order to play a tune, they require the user to coordinate the motions of multiple body parts, such as fingers, with a score or code showing the sequence of operations needed to produce a tune. Thus, to play the toy piano or the toy organ, the user must strike a series of keys in the proper succession; using multiple fingers if the notes are to smoothly join, and the instructions for this sequence are in the form of notes on a score, or colors on a card, or numbers on a card which in general are physically separated from the keys. Thus, red, or the number 7 must be associated with the striking of a certain key with a certain finger (or covering an air hole, or hitting a bar with a certain hand) and then directly the next code, be it blue or 9 or whatever must be translated to another key struck by another finger or a different fist. These demands on the user's concentration and physical coordination are difficult and require a period of training even for adults of average dexterity. For children or persons of lesser dexterity, they can be overwhelming.
A second major disadvantage of these instruments is the poor quality of the tone produced. Toy or inexpensive instruments do not sound like their real counterparts, and in fact they do not even sound very pleasant, being more noise than music.
A third major disadvantage is their inflexibility, such instruments generally having only one mode of play simulating some one real instrument, that instrument being playable in only one of its styles or modes.
Those few instruments which add versatility and quality such as the Casio Model VL TONE do so at a vastly increased cost, and in the case of the Casio, considerable difficulties in setting up the instrument and playing it.
Another major disadvantage of present instruments is the inability to hold a note while a new note is being selected.
A disadvantage of electrical/electronic instruments is the use of failure prone switching, said switching requiring multiple conduction path makes and breaks to select a note or set-up an instrument.
Yet another disadvantage is the inability to produce the range of effects necessary to simulate instruments accurately, such as vibrato, tremolo, wow, attack time and decay time.
Still another such disadvantage is the inability to produce special effects such as riffles, broken chords, creation of new instrument sounds, automatic note repeat, etc.
It has been discovered that all of these disadvantages can be overcome by a novel electronic-mechanical device in which a unique songcard, a mechanical registration method, a mechanical slide coupled to a special array switch, and an electronic circuit are combined.
An object of this invention is a musical device which can produce a pleasant tune with continuous note production (sound output), said tune being provided with the instrument on a songboard, when played by a user of only average dexterity, including children, said users being without prior experience or training either on this device or on any musical instrument.
One object of this invention is a song annotation in which notes which are linearly connected in the sequence in which they are to be played are also positionally disposed to coincide with that position of the actuating slide which will produce the desired note, such that playing consists of moving a slide along a continuous path pausing at annotated points.
Still another object is to produce music of pleasant quality having accurate pitch and good timbre.
Yet another object is to simulate a number of different instruments, to allow different modes (such as a glissando mode in which all notes play briefly as they are swept through in going from one sustained note to a different sustained note), to allow instrument groups in which instruments play one-at-a-time alternately, and to allow special effects of many types.
One more object is to provide reliable switching in a musical instrument.
One additional object is to provide a high quality musical instrument economically priced to qualify as a toy, but with quality and versatility to be of interest to persons of all ages.